How Choose a topic of interest, spend a little time researching it, have a discussion then publish the notes - which are available on the site to read along!

Why The main benefits are the fostering of a greater understanding of the world before we die and hopefully, to prompt further thought and discussion from our listeners.

The topic we will be discussing in this episode is North Korea

Topic Overview

‘Maintain vigilance against the ever-looming threat of an American invasion.’

‘Let us hasten final victory through a revolutionary ideological offensive!’

‘Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialised!’

As they say in that darkest of nations, North Korea. It’s a minor miracle that a country can succeed in alienating itself from the world’s stage so completely but the technologically impoverished denizens of the retro-Soviet Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea resolutely stand behind an electric fence of unending anti-Western propaganda—or so it would seem. What do we think we know and what do we actually know about the last Communist nuclear power?

Off-topic

What we’re not talking about

Bronski Beat

Talking Points

Each bullet is a talking point. Sub-bullets are topics that may or may not be covered. Usage: Read the bullet and sub-bullets then talk about some or all sub-bullets.

usually translated as "self-reliance", is the official political ideology of North Korea, described by the regime as Kim Il-Sung's "original, brilliant and revolutionary contribution to national and international thought".[1] The idea states that an individual is "the master of his destiny"[2] and that the North Korean masses are to act as the "masters of the revolution and construction".[2]

And what about the west that they despise so much?

Well, we give them a massive amount of free food

People

Racially homogenous

Not too many fat people

Kim Jong Un is conspicuously fat

not too many seriously old people

Tourism

Ryugyong Hotel (Hotel of Doom)

‘Pyongyang 2015 night’ (Google search)

‘Seoul 2015 night’

Government

Cult of personality

Orwell’s 1984 in action

Little Green Book

Kim Il Sung (1912-1994) (82 years old) The Great Leader

Kim Jong Il (1941 - 2011) (70 years old) Dear Leader from 1994

Kim Jong Un b. 1983 (33 years old) Great Successor from 2011

DMZ

Prison camps

Freedom Bridge

Axis of Evil

Military, standing army

Problems

Famine, starvation

Defection, escape

Power, heating

Infrastructure

Healthcare

Lies

South Korea

Sunshine Policy

Propaganda

Foreign Affairs

Moranbong Band

London embassy in Gunnersbury

Glossary

Terminology specific to the topic

아이고 Oh my God

빵셔틀 ‘Bread Shuttle’ A smaller, bullied child forced to run errands

Let us all turn out in the general offensive to hasten final victory in the revolutionary spirit of Paektu!

Let us greet the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding with high political enthusiasm and brilliant labour feats!

Let us glorify the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding as revolutionary, auspicious events noteworthy in the history of Kim Il Sung's nation and Kim Jong Il's Korea!

The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il are the eternal leaders of our revolution, the sun of Juche and the incarnation of the dignified powerful Paektusan nation.

Let us uphold the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il as the eternal leaders of our Party and people and as the sun of Juche!

The great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will always be with us!

Let us glorify the Kumsusan Palace of the Sun eternally as the supreme sanctuary of Juche, as a grand monument to the immortality of the leaders!

Let us arm ourselves firmly with the revolutionary ideas of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Long live the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Let us model the whole Party and all society on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Let us advance vigorously united firmly with one mind and one will as befit the descendants of Comrade Kim Il Sung and the soldiers and followers of Comrade Kim Jong Il!

Let us cherish the ties of kinship with Comrade Kim Jong Il as our lifeline!

Let us glorify the noble revolutionary careers and undying exploits of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il for all generations to come!

Let us glorify the achievement of national liberation by Generalissimo Kim Il Sung, hero of national resurrection and legendary hero of the anti-Japanese war, for all eternity!

Long live the great victory in the war against Japan!

Let us glorify the great Generalissimo Kim Jong Il's ideas of and achievements in the Songun revolution down through the generations!

Let us brilliantly inherit and develop the glorious revolutionary traditions of our Party!

Let us accomplish the Korean revolution in the revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu!

The lines and policies advanced by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il and their instructions are textbooks for the revolution.

Let us carry out the lifetime instructions of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il whatever the conditions without an inch of deflection and without a step of compromise!

Let us advance straight along the road of independence, Songun and socialism opened by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Let us build our country into the most powerful one in the world, into a people's fairyland, as wished by the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Do everything the way the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il did!

Let us step up the building of a prosperous country by applying Kim Jong Il's patriotism!

Let us exalt the brilliance of the great Kim Il Sung's country, General Kim Jong Il's country, following the leadership of Comrade Kim Jong Un!

Let us stoutly continue, following the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, the march that started on Paektu!

The single-hearted unity is the greatest foundation and the most powerful weapon of our revolution.

Let us defend with our very lives the Party Central Committee headed by the great Comrade Kim Jong Un!

Let us defend the single-hearted unity of the Party and revolutionary ranks around the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un in a thoroughgoing way and consolidate it rock-solid!

Let all the service personnel and people form rings and rings of fortress around the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un!

Long live the glorious Workers' Party of Korea, which organizes and guides all victories of our people!

Let us strengthen and develop the Workers' Party of Korea for all ages to come into a glorious party of Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il!

Let us set up a new milestone in improving the Party's leadership ability and fighting efficiency in this year, which marks its 70th founding anniversary!

Let us establish the Party's monolithic leadership system more thoroughly across the Party and society!

Let the whole Party share the ideas, breathe the same air and keep pace with the Party Central Committee!

Let us establish across the Party rigorous discipline by which it moves as one under the unified leadership of the Party Central Committee!

Let us defend the prestige of the Party Central Committee in every way possible through the struggle to implement the Party's ideas and champion its policies!

Turn your units and areas into places that adjoin the yard of the office of the Party Central Committee, places where the Party's call, breath and pulse run high!

Keep up with the implementation of the Party's lines and policies as the major line of Party work!

We serve the people!

Let us make the principle of holding the masses dearest run through Party work as a whole!

Let us make the climate of respecting, loving and relying on the people prevail across the Party!

Focus the major effort in Party work on improving the people's standard of living!

Let Party organizations and officials work devotedly for the people to live up to their highest expectations!

Let the whole Party direct its main effort to the work with the people!

Raise all people into ones strong in idea and faith with the affection and the feeling of kinship as befits a motherly party!

Even though one may have 99 per cent of demerits and only one per cent of merit or conscience, boldly trust him and lead him to start with a clean slate!

Regard giving play to the spiritual strength of the masses as the main thing, compulsory path, of Party work!

Let Party officials learn the Party's methods of work with the people and become skilful in remoulding them and giving play to their spiritual strength!

Thoroughly get rid of abuse of authority and bureaucratism!

Regard supply service work as an important link in the whole chain of Party work!

Let Party cells become death-defying corps and pioneers in implementing the Party's policies!

Let us hasten final victory through a revolutionary ideological offensive!

Hold fast to ideological work as the top priority!

Let us raise a strong wind of studying the great Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Concentrate on education in the greatness of the leaders, Kim Jong Il's patriotism, faith, anti-imperialist and class consciousness, and morality!

Keep the revolutionary faith to the death!

Fight death-defyingly for our country and nation!

Let us bear deep in mind the lessons from the class struggle and its truth!

Let the Party's information officials work as the buglers of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army did!

Make all well-informed of the Party's policies as they are of their own family affairs!

Fire an opening salvo of an ideological campaign and make our fire concentrated, regular and accurate!

Step up the three-revolution red flag movement!

Frustrate the imperialist moves for ideological and cultural infiltration by dint of our revolutionary ideology and culture!

Let the whole Party become information and motivation workers!

Demonstrate the revolutionary mettle as befit members of the Workers' Party of Korea in the today's general offensive true to the pledge taken in front of its flag!

Our Party's new line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts is a permanent strategic line that we must pursue as long as there exists the threat of aggression by the imperialists.

All out for a campaign to implement the Party's line of simultaneously promoting the two fronts!

The People's Army is the pillar and main force of the Songun revolution and a revolutionary armed force of the Workers' Party of Korea.

Let us model the entire army on Kimilsungism-Kimjongilism!

Adorn the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding with proud successes in consolidating the country's military strength!

Let the People's Army remain the reliable vanguard and solid cornerstone of the Songun revolution holding aloft the red flag of the Workers' Party of Korea as the foremost colours of the revolution!

Become the props and iron shields that support and defend the lineage of Mt. Paektu alone to the death!

Establish the respected Supreme Commander Kim Jong Un's monolithic command system more firmly throughout the army!

Implement to the letter the four-point strategic line and three major tasks for increasing military strength!

Make the entire army the leading force of guards who advance straight ahead with their guns levelled only in the direction indicated by the Party!

Let the People's Army become an army strong in idea and faith, a pioneer in achieving unity and the first guardian of the unity, which is unfailingly loyal to the Party and the leader!

Let the entire army become a unit of genuine comrades-in-arms!

Consolidate in every way the political and military might of Kim Jong Un's powerful revolutionary army by vigorously conducting the movement of winning the titles of O Jung Hup-led 7th Regiment and Guards Unit!

This year is a year of great significance, in which we will mark the 40th anniversary of the publication of the five-point policy for military training by the great Generalissimo Kim Il Sung and the 25th anniversary of the formulation of the four major principles for military training by the great Generalissimo Kim Jong Il.

Training is also a battle!

Let the entire army bubble with enthusiasm for intensifying training as anti-Japanese guerrillas did on Mt. Paektu!

Glorify this significant year as a milestone in improving the quality of combat and political training!

Let the entire army be prepared as crack shots by raising more fiercely the flames of the movement of becoming accurate riflemen and gunners!

Should the enemy dare to invade our country, annihilate them to the last man so that none of them will survive to sign the instrument of surrender!

Be constantly on the alert without a moment's relaxation!

Establish iron discipline to develop the People's Army into an elite revolutionary force to the hilt!

All officers, become field commanders who are capable of dealing with modern warfare!

Let us develop battalions and companies into ever-victorious, elite combat units and make them soldiers' dear villages and homes that adjoin the yard of the office of the Party Central Committee!

Enrich the life of service personnel by making sustained efforts to develop soy bean farming, fishing and animal husbandry as the main thrusts!

The supply service officers of the People's Army, work with devotion for their soldiers like those of the anti-Japanese guerrilla army!

Give full play to the match-for-a-hundred spirit and fighting efficiency of the People's Army on the major fronts of building a thriving nation!

Serve the country and people!

Aid the people!

Let the wives of officers become dependable assistants to their husbands!

Officers and men of the Korean People's Internal Security Forces, sharpen the sword for defending their leader, system and people!

Let us become iron shields and red warriors who defend our Party, system and people to the death!

Let us establish the climate of attaching importance to military affairs more firmly across society!

The Worker-Peasant Red Guards is a revolutionary armed force of our Party and a reliable wing of the People's Army.

The Worker-Peasant Red Guards and the Young Red Guards, be fully prepared for an all-people resistance by intensifying training in a real-war atmosphere!

Let us turn the whole country into a socialist fairyland by the joint operation of the army and people!

Let us achieve final victory on the strength of the great army-people unity and all-people resistance based on the revolutionary soldier spirit!

Always live the way you did as a soldier!

Let us look after the families of those who fell in action, honoured disabled soldiers, war veterans and soldiers' families with sincerity!

Defence industry is the reliable arsenal of the Songun revolution.

Effect a fresh turn in developing defence industry by giving full play to the spirit of Kunja-ri!

Proactively develop and perfect powerful cutting-edge military hardware of our own style!

Step up the efforts to make defence industry Juche-oriented and independent, modern and scientific!

Let the defence industry sector make a positive contribution to building an economic giant and improving the people's standard of living!

Our Party is steadfast in its determination to make our people, who are the best in the world, enjoy all socialist benefits as soon as possible.

Let us tend the precious seeds sown by the great Comrade Kim Jong Ilfor the building of an economic giant and the improvement of the people's living standards, in order to make them bear fruit in reality!

Science and technology is the engine of socialist construction.

Let the science front stand at the forefront to fire a salvo for the triumph of socialism!

Let us build a fairyland for the people by dint of science!

Scientific research is an area of acute confrontation with imperialism!

Go beyond the cutting edge!

Accelerate the industrial revolution in the new century by introducing CNC technology into the production lines and achieving their full automation!

To resolve the food problem of the people and improve their dietary life on a higher level with crop cultivation, animal husbandry and fishing as the main thrusts is the most important task facing our Party at present.

Agriculture is the trench on the first line of the forward echelon of the campaign to defend socialism and the main thrust area for the building of an economic giant!

Let us glorify through generations the new history of "gold plains" created by the great Comrade Kim Jong Il!

Let us make our country overflow with rice by boosting cereals production!

Establish the food production cycle of crop cultivation and livestock farming, and fruit growing and livestock farming!

Let us beat the world in fruit farming by making it scientific, modern and intensive!

Make fruits cascade down and their sweet aroma fill the air on the sea of apple trees at the foot of Chol Pass!

Grow vegetables extensively in greenhouses!

Let us turn ours into a country of mushrooms by making mushroom cultivation scientific, intensive and industrialized!

This year we will mark the 50th anniversary of the creation of the sub-workteam management system by the great Comrade Kim Il Sung, which is the advantageous form and method of our style to organize and manage for production.

Demonstrate the advantages of the sub-workteam management system to the full!

Properly apply the field responsibility principle within the sub-workteam management system in order to make it pay off in agricultural production!

Press on with the South Hwanghae Province waterway project in the revolutionary spirit of death-defying implementation and self-reliance!

Let us carry through the great Generalissimos' instructions on "grass for meat"!

Let us expedite the construction of the large-scale livestock farming base in the Sepho area!

Produce larger quantities of meat, eggs and milk holding high the banner of science-based livestock farming!

Create a new history of "gold sea" by emulating the fishing sector of the People's Army!

Let this socialist country resound with Song of Big Fish Haul and be permeated with the fragrant smell of fish and other seafoods!

It is a long-cherished desire of all the fellow countrymen and urgent task of the nation to put an end to the tragedy of national division that has lasted 70 years.

Let us build a dignified and prosperous reunified country on this land without fail true to the lifetime wishes of the great Comrades Kim Il Sungand Kim Jong Il.

Let us hold high the three charters for national reunification and the north-south declarations as charters and great programmes for national reunification common to the nation!

Let the whole nation join efforts to open up a broad avenue to independent reunification in this year which marks the 70th anniversary of national liberation!

Let us put an end to interference by outside forces and achieve national reunification independently under the unfurled banner of By Our Nation Itself!

Let us bring about a great turn in the inter-Korean relations in this year that marks the 15th anniversary of the June 15 Joint Declaration!

Let the whole nation turn out and write a new chapter in the history of inter-Korean relations in hearty response to the peerlessly great man's patriotic call!

Let us determinedly thwart the military provocations and schemes of war games by the US and south Korean warmongers!

Let us rise up in the nationwide struggle to drive the US imperialist aggressive forces, the root cause of national misfortune and war, out of south Korea!

Let us resolutely frustrate the anti-DPRK "human rights" schemes by the US and its vassal forces!

Let us hold fast to the principles of our foreign policy-independence, peace and friendship!

Let us maintain the revolutionary principles and independent stand with all consistency in foreign relations!

Let us develop foreign relations in a multilateral and proactive way, giving top priority to the dignity and interests of the country!

Let us develop friendly and cooperative relations with all countries that respect the sovereignty of our nation and are friendly to us!

All Party members, officers and men of the People's Army and people!

An opening salvo of the general offensive for the 70th anniversaries of national liberation and Party founding has been fired.

The revolutionary spirit of Paektu, the spirit of the blizzards of Paektu and the anti-Japanese revolutionary forerunners' call to keep the revolutionary faith even if one may die, stir up further the confidence in sure victory and fighting spirit of our service personnel and people, who are charging forward along the road of Juche against all odds, and inspire loyalty and passion in the advancing ranks.

No force can check this sweeping advance of the service personnel and people, who are marching in fine array arm-in-arm, shoulder-to-shoulder, following the leadership of the respected Comrade Kim Jong Un, a great man of Paektu.

The flags bearing the beaming images of the great Comrades Kim Il Sung and Kim Jong Il will fly forever in the van of our revolutionary ranks that achieve only victory and glory, and always inspire us to fresh victories.

All forward towards the venue of victory celebration!

Long live the great victory in the anti-Japanese war and the 70th anniversary of national liberation!

Long live the 70th anniversary of the Workers' Party of Korea!

Wrap Up

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Outro music choice - something open source or out of copyright so we don’t get sued